Little Jane
by Kathryn Rayner Of Voyager
Summary: A temporal anomaly leaves Chakotay looking after a twelve-year-old Kathryn. How does he cope, and how do they return Voyager's Captain back to normal?


Little Jane

"Commander, we are at the correct co-ordinates," Lieutenant Tare checks the readings on her console, looking nervously over her shoulder at Commander Chakotay, sat in the Captain's chair behind her.

"Maybe the shuttle got delayed," states Seven of Nine, pulling up a spacial grid of the area in the corner of the main viewscreen, displaying their current co-ordinates and the last known co-ordinates of the shuttle. "There appears to an asteriod field, two solar systems and a spacial anomaly between our current position and the last reported postion of the shuttle."

"Set a course for those co-ordinates, Lieutenant. Knowing Kathryn, she's taken them off to explore the solar systems," Chakotay smiles half-heartedly, secretly worried inside.

They were set to rendez-vous with the Delta Flyer, carrying Captain Janeway, Tom Paris and two young Ensigns from Engineering, after a trade meeting with the occupants of a planet in a solar system almost thirty light years away.

As they approach the asteriod field, they discover the Delta Flyer on sensors, floating lifelessly through the asteriods, with only life support and lights functioning inside the cabin.

"Two life signs, Commander, both children," reports Tuvok.

"Hail them."

"Channel open, Commander."

"This is Commander Chakotay of Voyager. Can anyone hear me?" Chakotay asks, rising from the Captain's chair.

After what seems like an eternity to those gathered on the Bridge, the voice of a young boy calls across from the shuttlecraft.

"Um, hi. Are you going to help us?"

"Yes, we're here to help you. Is there anyone else there with you?"

"Yeah, a girl. She got the lights to work and then started dismantling the replicator thingy, don't know why though. Said she's hungry, but wants coffee. Bit weird if you ask me," comments the boy. Chakotay smiles, raising an eyebrow at Tuvok.

"Can you activate the main viewscreen for us?" asks Harry Kim.

"Err . . ."

"Oh, move over. Let me do it, birdbrain," comes an indignant female voice, followed by a soft, masculine grunt that could only come from the girl elbowing him in the ribs.

The main viewscreen display changes from the dark, starry expanse of the asteriod field to the interior of the Delta Flyer, where a scruffy, redhead stands behind the controls, tampering with the console controls, with a smaller, blonde boy stood behind her, peering over her shoulder.

"What are you doing?" asks Harry Kim, craning his neck to try and see what the girl was doing.

"Trying to reconnect the replicator to the main power system. I want my coffee," mutters the girl irritably. Most of the technology of the replicator lies scattered across the floor behind them, the remaining circuitry crackling and sparking, finally conjuring a mug of coffee from thin air.

"Finally!" she throws her hands up in the air, exasperated, and steps away from the controls and taking the mug of coffee, leaning against another console as she held it to her lips, watching Voyager's Bridge crew with a raised eyebrow, waiting for the interrogation to begin.

"Are you Kathryn Janeway?" Chakotay asks, already anticipating the answer. The girl shrugs. "And are you Tom Paris?" the boy nods uncertainly. "How old are you?"

"Twelve."

"Five."

Chakotay sighs. _This could be more difficult than I thought._

"Do you know to use the Transporters?" asks Tuvok, seemingly unscathed by the raged appearance of his Captain, Voyager's helmsman.

Kathryn shakes her head. "Never needed to. Always parked our shuttles planetside, so there was no point in learning to. Why?"

"Because you are in Voyager's Delta Flyer. We are on our way home from the Delta Quadrant, and Federation space is currently sixty-five thousand light years from our current position. You cannot survive all that time in a shuttlecraft with a two-man crew," states Seven. "You do not have the right equipment or technology to do so, nor are either of experienced to do so. If you join us on board Voyager, we could get you home."

"Oh, so that's why this asteriod field didn't look familiar. I was wondering about that," mutter Kathryn, setting down her coffee mug and turning to tamper with the controls on the console she had been leaning against moments before. "Where's your shuttle bay, then?"

"They're both perfectly healthy, Commander. We just need to arrange living quarters for them," reports the Doctor, shutting his tricorder.

"Tom can stay with me," volunteers B'Elanna hurriedly. He shrugs and slids off the biobed, taking her hand and stumbling from Sickbay by her side.

"Who can I stay with?" asks Kathryn softly after an awkward silence falls over Sickbay.

"Why don't you come stay with me?" Chakotay offers gently.

"Okay." She slids from the biobed and takes his hand, walking by his side from Sickbay to his quarters, looking around at the computer consoles in the corridor walls, smiling at the crewmen and women as they pass, waving shyly at Neelix and grinning at Naomi.

As they step inside Chakotay's quarters, Kathryn pulls away from him, running over to the bookcase to look at the books; reaching up to lightly pick up the ornaments from the top shelf, turning them in her hands, studying them; she kneels on the couch, watching as the stars stream pass her fingers. She stands and disappears into the darkness of his bedroom, the lights rising as he follows her in; she's sat on his bed, the box from the bottom of his cupboard in her hands; she's turning it, running her fingers over the elegant carvings etched into the wood.

He stands in the doorway, watching her as, slowly, she goes through the contents, one by one: first, a beaded necklace. Smooth, round, creamy beads seperated by soft, short, dark blue cylinders, tribal carvings etched by hand into the small pieces of wood.

Next, four small photos, patched together in the old-fashioned photo album style. She opens the cover and stares at the first photo. It was taken by the Doctor during shore leave, and is of the adult Kathryn Janeway and Chakotay; both are in civilian clothes, and they stand hand in hand on a beach, the water lapping around their ankles, silhouetted against the setting sun.

She turns the page to the second and then the third photo; more shore leave and civilian clothes photos, again, taken by the Doctor. In the second, he's stood behind her, his arms around her waist, his head resting on her shoulder. In the third, he's carrying her on his back, through deep snow, the flakes still falling around them and sticking to their hair and clothes, turning their faces red.

In the fourth, it's a Christmas photo. They're stood under mistletoe, her arms around his neck, his hands splayed out over the small of her back and behind her neck, their eyes closed as they kiss, the blurred shapes of crewmembers seen to be cheering in the background.

A loose photo is next: its one of them, talking, laughing and drinking champagne at Tom Paris and B'Elanna Torres' wedding a few months before.

A small, handwritten letter; a jeweled watch; a piece of torn, midnight blue fabric; a lock of aubrun-red hair, darker than that of the twelve-year-old Kathryn's, and kept together by a silky blue ribbon; a deep, velvety blue box, with a diamond-inset ring sat on the cushion inside. She leaves the box open on the coverlet as she opens the small photo album on the last photo, studying it.

"She's pretty."

"Yes, she is."

"What's her name?"

"Kathryn. Just like you." She smiles, and he goes to sit down on the bed beside her, taking the photos in his hand and gazing intently at the one open in his hands, smiling sadly and silently wishing that they would find a way to bring his Kathryn back to him.

"You really like her." It was a statement and not a question.

"Yes, yes I do. And I hope that one day she'll let me into her heart and we can be together."

The little girl by his side studies his face, sub-consciously tracing the lines of the tiny diamonds on the ring with her fingers, so much like his Kathryn when she asks sincerely, "You really miss her, don't you? You're sad because she's gone away and hasn't come back yet."

He nods. "I miss her whenever I'm not with her." Her face falls.

"Something bad happened, didn't it?" she asks.

"I don't know. I hope not. But she had to go away for a few days, and didn't come when she was supposed to yesterday. I'm just hoping she'll call soon to tell me she's alright."

"You're scared she's not coming back," she says after a short but not uncomfortable silence.

"Yes, I am."

She looks down at the ring in the box, and tears appear in her eyes. She crawls closer to him and wraps her arms around him, trying to comfort him as much as herself. He hugs her back, still staring at the holopicture over her head.

"You remind me of her. You look just like her."

"Thank you."

"Would you like to play with me on the Holodeck?" Kathryn looks up from her book, and grins at Naomi. Giving her book to Neelix to look after, she follows Naomi through the corridors to Holodeck One.

"What would you like to do?" asks Naomi brightly. Kathryn hesitates before answering.

"Well, I've always wanted to go horseriding . . ."

Naomi giggles, and intructs the computer to engage the Wildman Omega Beta Four Holodeck program, smiling as she watches Kathryn gape as the plain, boring Holodeck grid fade into a typical, Terran, Montana horse range, where they find themselves stood in the middle of the stables, the horses peering out at them.

A speckled grey pony whinnies, tossing his head as Naomi runs to greet him. Kathryn watches the exchange between the small T'Karian girl and the speckled pony, not sure whether to be amused or uncertain.

She looks around at the other horses in the stable, jumping when the big black stallion in the stall behind her with the white star on his forehead and three white socks starts to nuzzle in her hair, sniffing her and blowing air at her throw his nostrils. She reaches up a hand to pet him, stroking his neck as he nibbles at her hand.

Naomi wanders over, and hands her a handful of oats, guiding Kathryn's hand to offer the oats to the stallion.

"This is Nightwish. I think he likes you."

"Well, I like him too."

Chakotay steps into his quarters at the end of his shift, calling out to Kathryn. When she doesn't answer, he finds himself starting to worry.

"Computer, locate Kathryn Janeway."

"Kathryn Janeway is on Holodeck One."

"Is she alone?"

"She is currently with Naomi Wildman."

"Damn," he mutters, and runs from his quarters, darting through the crewmembers in the corridors to get to the closest turbolift. He directs it to Deck, impatiently tapping his foot as he waits for the doors to open again.

After what couldn't possibly have been only a few seconds, the doors open, and he rushes down the corridor, dodging more crewmembers before skidding into Holodeck One and Naomi's horse riding program. He groans, frustrated, and grabs his tack from the racks on the Tack Room almost running down to his chestnut gelding, Spirit's stall.

He saddles the gelding, and changes the loose, red rope, stable bridle for the leather riding bridle, before throwing the stable bridle over the door to Spirit's stall and leaping strategically into the saddle, setting off down Naomi's favourite trail.

He found them by the lake, dangling their feet in the cool water, their horses, the black stallion Nightwish and the speckled grey pony appropriately named Speckles, grazing in the shade of the trees. He slides from the saddle, and guides Spirit over to join Nightwish and Speckles, patting the gelding as the horses greeted each other and he turned to greet Naomi and Kathryn, kicking off his own shoes and joining them on the bank of the lake, dangling his feet in the water too.

"We're playing twenty questions. Do you want to play too, Uncle Chakotay?" asks Naomi.

"Sure, okay."

"Okay, first question," she hesitates, trying to think of an apropriate question to ask the ship's First Officer. Kathryn's face lights up.

"On a scale of one to ten, how much do you like your friend, Kathryn?" she doesn't appear to notice the colour rushing to Chakotay's face, or the horror and panic on Naomi's, seemingly oblivious. Chakotay decides to play along, after all it was only a harmless game . . . with Naomi Wildman and a . . . twelve-year-old version of his Captain and very best friend. Yeah, that's not harmless at all.

"Ooh, that's a hard one. Nine point five."

"Nine point five?" Kathryn seems surprised. "Why not ten?"

"Because, although I love her more than anything else in the universe, there are times when she makes it really hard to love her. Like when we disagree over a descision she's made involving the ship, and she doesn't ask for advice on it. Sometimes, when she does that, it feels like she doesn't trust me." A single tear rolls down his cheek, and he wipes it away, gazing blankly at the far off horizon, seeing the older Kathryn's face in the clouds that hover in the sky above it.

"What do you like about Aunt Kathy?" asks Naomi, determined to change the now somewhat saddened mood. Chakotay smiles.

"I like how she doesn't let anyone tell her what to do, and how brave and determined she can be when she wants to be. She's pretty, clever, gentle, and very funny, and she can dance really well," his eyes grow distant. "And she always puts everyone else before herself; she'll make sure that everyone is happy before she allows herself to be happy. She listens to people, and tries to help them with their problems, even when its not her place to. She has the biggest heart of everyone I know, and she has more than enough love to go around, she just needs to realise how well she's done that." By now, the tears are streaming down his face.

Kathryn edges closer and wraps her arms around one of his as Naomi crawls to his other side and wraps her arms around his chest, both crying too. Chakotay strokes Naomi's hair, and kisses the top of Kathryn's head.

"Let me tell you a story," he says.

"Will you read me a story?"

Kathryn's stood in the doorway that seperates his bedroom from hers, holding a book she'd found and replicated herself. Chakotay smiles, and pats the bed beside him, inviting her to sit down beside him. She grins, and jumps onto the bed, handing him the book as she curled up against the pillows, waiting for him to start.

He opens the front cover, finds the first page and starts to read aloud. By the time he's reached the second chapter of the book, however, she's barely awake, struggling to keep her eyes open. He sets the book down on his coffee table and lifts her into his arms, carrying her through the door and into her quarters, laying her down on the bed as she finally fell asleep.

He looked around the room, his heart throbbing with the pain of missing his Kathryn, and noticed that her closet door stood ajar, and a small box on the bottom shelf sat at an awkward angle in its place. Knowing his Kathryn as well as he did, he trudged as silently as he could across the carpet and gingerly pulled open the door and picked up the box.

He settled on the carpet at the end of Kathryn's bed with it, and even as the little voice inside of him screamed at him that what he was doing was wrong, he lifted the lid of the box and carefully studied the contents.

There was a small box, with two rings: both were engagement rings, one from Mark, one from Justin.

Two necklaces: Chakotay recognized one as the one Mark had given her before they had been stranded here in the Delta Quadrant; the second he held in his hands for longer: it was the one he had given her on the last shore leave, which now seemed so long ago.

The pocket watch he had given her on her last birthday, the one she had originally turned down but then found amongst the rubble of his stuff.

Then, a collection of holopictures; there was one of her and Mark with an Irish Setter; a last year Academy holopicture; a family holopicture; one of her, her father and a man he assumed was Justin, presumably taken a few days before the accident she had told him of.

And finally, at the bottom of the box, was a framed holopicture of her and him, on shore leave a few years ago, just after New Earth, when her hair was still long and silky and she spent more time the crew. He smiled as he traced her face, before he hugged the picture to his chest, and silently started to cry.

"I miss you, Kathryn. I wish you'd come back to me."

"Commander Chakotay, could you please report to Sickbay for a moment, please?"

"I'm on my way." Chakotay rose from his chair, his heart pounding as he passed the Captain's chair and stepped into the turbolift, turning the Bridge over to Tuvok. He slumped against the wall of the turbolift as he directed it to Sickbay and closed his eyes, letting memories of Kathryn flash behind his eyelids.

He straightened and composed himself as the turbolift arrived in Sickbay, and he marched purposefully into the Doctor's office, where he found Seven of Nine studying a computer console over the Doctor's shoulder.

"Ah, Commander, I'm glad you're here. B'Elanna will be here shortly," said the Doctor cheerfully, seconds before B'Elanna hurtled into Sickbay.

"Care to tell us why you called us here, Doc? Please tell me you have some answers for us?" she asked impatiently as she came to a halt by Chakotay, folding her arms across her chest. It was Seven that answered her.

"We have reason to believe we have a reason behind the fates of Captain Janeway, Lieutenant Paris and the two Ensigns from Engineering." She paused befofre continuing. "When we first found the shuttle, we found it in a region of space that was home to two solar systems, an asteriod field and a temporal anamoly. The computer of the Delta Flyer indicates that their flight path took them directly through the temporal anamoly, but the anamoly didn't directly register with the computer until after they had passed through it."

"It appears that the anamoly reversed any organic life inside the shuttle by twenty-eight years, hense why the Captain and Mr. Paris are as they are, and why the two Ensigns from Engineering seem to no longer exsist."

"So, if we send the Captain and Tom back through the anamoly the other way, will it have the opposite effect?" asked B'Elanna, grasping hopefully at straws. The Doctor nodded, mutely.

"And we're going to do this, how?"

"Hey, it's okay, you'll be alright, I promise. We'll be on main viewscreen the entire time, nothing will go wrong." Kathryn's bottom lip wobbles slightly as she hugs him tightly, before curling up in her chair at the station almost directly behind Tom's, who holds a small brown teddy bear to his chest, staring after B'Elanna, who waves as Chakotay slips from the shuttlecraft and the door closes, shutting them inside.

Chakotay hurries up the Bridge, watching as the program pre-programmed into the Delta Flyer's computers guides it back the shuttlecraft back through part of its last travelled course, with one slight difference: when the shuttle approaches the anomaly, it would approach it from the side that would hopefully reverse its effects.

As the shuttlecraft approaches the anomaly, Chakotay can feel the tension as B'Elanna nervously grabs his hand. He squeezes it, unaware of what he is doing as he gasps. The viewscreen had gone black, with distressed screams from the young Kathryn and Tom inside the shuttlecraft the last thing to be heard as the communications channel was severed.

"What's happened to them?" he barks, his heart in his throat.

"The Delta Flyer has survived. It has sustained heavy damage, but there are two life signs, minimal injuries," reports Harry Kim from his station.

"Tractor the shuttle and beam them to Sickbay immediately."

"Aye, sir."

Chakotay walked into Sickbay with B'Elanna. She spotted Tom and shot off to greet him, as Chakotay's eyes found Kathryn, sat on a biobed on the far side of Sickbay, the Doctor running a dermal regenerator over gashes on her face and hands.

He slowly approaches, and smiles at the Doctor as the hologram finishes his work and disappears into his office. As the Doctor disappeared, Chakotay stepped into view and grinned as Kathryn jumped from the biobed and ran to fling her arms around his neck. He wraps his arms around her and hugs her back.

"I missed you," he whispered into her hair.

"I know, Chakotay, I know," she murmured into his chest. She turned her face up to look into his eyes. "Don't leave me, please," she says. He kissed her forehead.

"Never."


End file.
